Military weapon source code to be tested by casual gamers

The Pentagon has a new plan for testing the software and code that is used in weapons systems. The plan is to integrate that code into some video games that are released to gamers and let the crowd sourced testing of the code begin. The code won’t be used in shooters like America’s Army though, it would be used in “fun to play” games like puzzle games and such that normal folk could pick up and play.

DARPA has put out a draft request for proposals, and the goal is to have developers craft games that are “intuitively understandable by ordinary people.” The goal is to make the games playable and solvable using laptops, smartphones, tablets, and consoles. The solutions to the games would be entered into a database to be used for improving analyzing software.

The hope is that the crowd source testing via games of the source code would help the military to better ensure that their software is free from issues with security or stability. The current process of testing software is falling short, and the military is also facing a shortage of specialists in computer security. Crowd sourcing the testing would be a way to get more hands on the testing deck in a fun way for the end user.